This invention relates to a method for implanting a marker in tissue of a surgical patent at a biopsy site. More specifically, it relates to such a method to implant a marker for the purpose of defining particular locations in human tissue during and after a biopsy procedure, particularly in a human breast.
One in nine American women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women 40-55 years of age and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women overall. Breast cancer will be diagnosed in approximately one in eight women in their lifetime, and one in 30 will die of this disease. Breast cancer does occur in males but is much less common. Biopsy requests stem from a screening process generally performed via a physical examination (palpable) and/or mammogram (non-palpable). A biopsy is indicated if suspicious tissue is detected. Five out of six biopsies performed return benign indications.
It is desirable and often necessary to perform procedures for detecting, sampling, and testing lesions and other abnormalities in the tissue of humans and other animals, particularly in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cancerous tumors, pre-malignant condition and other diseases or disorders. Typically, in the case of cancer, when a physician establish by means of known procedures (i.e. palpation, x-ray, MRI, or ultrasound imaging) that suspicious circumstances exist, a biopsy is performed to determine whether the cells are cancerous. Biopsy may be an open or percutaneous technique. Open biopsy removes the entire mass (excisional biopsy) or a part of the mass (incisional biopsy). Percutaneous biopsy on the other hand is usually done with a needle-like instrument and may be either a fine needle aspiration (FNA) or a core biopsy. In FNA biopsy, very small needles are used to obtain individual cells or clusters of cells for cytologic examination. The cells may be prepared such as in a Papanicolaou (Pap) smear. In core biopsy, as the term suggests, a core or fragment of tissue is obtained for histologic examination, which may be done via a frozen section or paraffin section. The chief difference between FNA and core biopsy is the size of the tissue sample taken. An imaging system having spectroscopic capabilities, such as the stereotactic guidance system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,011 is employed to guide the extraction instrument to the lesion.
Depending on the procedure being performed, the sample may result in the suspicious lesion being partially or completely removed. Visibility of the lesion by the imaging system may be hampered because of the distortion created by the extraction process itself as well as associated bleeding in the surrounding tissues. Although the lesion is removed and all fluids are continuously aspirated from the extraction site, it is likely that the process will "cloud" the lesion, thus impairing exact recognition of its margins. This makes it difficult to ensure that the entire lesion will be removed.
Often, the lesion is merely a calcification derived from dead abnormal tissue, which may be cancerous or precancerous, and it is desirable to remove only a sample of the lesion, rather than the entire lesion, to evaluate it. This is because such a lesion actually serves to mark or define the location of adjacent abnormal tissue, so the physician does not wish to remove the entire lesion and thereby lose a critical means for later relocating the affected tissue. One of the benefits to the patient from core biopsy is that the mass of the tissue taken is small. However, oftentimes, either inadvertently or because the lesion is too small, the entire lesion is removed for evaluation, even though it is desirable to remove only a portion. Then, if subsequent analysis indicates the tissue to be malignant (malignant tissue requires removal, days or weeks later, of tissue around the immediate site of the original biopsy), it is difficult for the physician to determine the precise location of the lesion, in order to perform necessary additional procedures on adjacent potentially cancerous tissue. Additionally, even if the lesion is found to be benign, there will be no evidence of its location during future examinations, to mark the location of the previously removed calcification so that the affected tissue may be carefully monitored for future reoccurrence.
Thus, it would be of considerable benefit to be able to permanently mark the location or margins of such a lesion prior to or immediately after removing the sample. Marking prior to removal would help to ensure that the entire lesion is excised, if desired. Alternatively, if the lesion were inadvertently removed in its entirety, marking the biopsy site immediately after the procedure would enable re-establishment of its location for future identification.
A number of procedures and devices for marking and locating particular tissue locations are known in the prior art. For example, location wire guides, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,269 to Miller et al, are well known for locating lesions, particularly in the breast. The device described by Miller comprises a tubular introducer needle and an attached wire guide, which has at its distal end a helical coil configuration for locking into position about the targeted lesion. The needle is introduced onto the breast and guided to the lesion site using an imaging system of a known type, for example, x-ray, ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), at which time the helical coil at the distal end is deployed about the lesion. Then, the needle may be removed from the wire guide, which remains in a locked position distally about the lesion for guiding a surgeon down the wire to the lesion site during subsequent surgery. While such a location system is effective, it is obviously intended and designed to be only temporary, and is removed once the surgery or other procedure has been completed.
Other devices are known for marking external regions of a patient's skin. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,270 to Carswell, Jr. discloses a syringe which dispenses a colorant to give a visual indication on the surface of the point at which an injection has or will be given. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,307 to Gluck discloses a device which has patterning elements for impressing a temporary mark in a patients skin, for guiding the location of an injection or the like. It is also known to tape or otherwise adhere a small metallic marker, e.g. a 3 millimeter diameter lead sphere, on the skin of a human breast in order to delineate the location of skin calcifications (see Homer et al, The Geographic Cluster of Microcalcifications of the Breast, Surgery, Gynecology, & Obstetrics, December 1985). Obviously, however, none of these approaches are useful for marking and delineating internal tissue abnormalities, such as lesions or tumors.
Still another approach for marking potential lesions and tumors of the breast is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,959. In the described procedure, the skin of the portion of the body to be evaluated, such as the breasts, is coated with a heat sensitive color-responsive chemical, after which that portion of the body is heated with penetrating radiation such as diatherny. Then, the coated body portion is scanned for color changes which would indicate hot spots beneath the skin surface. These so-called hot spots may represent a tumor or lesion, which does not dissipate heat as rapidly because of its relatively poor blood circulation (about 1/20 of the blood flow through normal body tissue). This method, of course, functions as a temporary diagnostic tool, rather than in a permanent means for delineating the location of a tumor or lesion.
A method of identifying and treating abnormal neoplastic tissue or pathogens within the body is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,151 to Doughety et al. In this method, a tumor-selective photosensitizing drug is introduced into a patient's body, where it is cleared from normal tissue faster than it is cleared from abnormal tissue. After the drug clears normal tissue but before it has cleared abnormal neoplastic tissue, the abnormal neoplastic tissue may be located by the luminescence of the drug within the abnormal tissue. The fluorescence may be observed with low intensity light, some of which is within the drug's absorbency spectrum. Once detected, the tissue may be destroyed by further application of higher intensity light having a frequency within the absorbency spectrum of the drug. Of course, this method also is only a temporary means for marking the abnormal tissue. Additionally, once the abnormal tissue has been destroyed during treatment, the marker is destroyed as well.
It is also known to employ biocompatible dyes or stains to mark breast lesions. First, a syringe containing the colorant is guided to a detected lesion, using an imaging system. Later, during the extraction procedure, the surgeon harvests a tissue sample from the stained tissue. However, while such staining techniques can be effective, it is difficult to precisely localize the stain. Also, the stains are difficult to detect flouoroscopically and may not always be permanent.
Additionally, it is known to implant markers directly into a patient's body using invasive surgical techniques. For example, during a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), which of course constitutes open-heart surgery, it is common practice to surgically apply one or more metallic rings to the aorta at the site of the graft. This enables a practitioner to later return to the site of the graft by identifying the rings, for evaluative purposes. It is also common practice to mark a surgical site with staples, vascular clips, and the like, for the purpose of future evaluation of the site.
A technique has been described for the study of pharyngeal swallowing in dogs, which involves permanently implanting steel marker beads in the submucosa of the pharynx (S. S. Kramer et al, A Permanent Radiopaque Marker Technique for the Study of Pharyngeal Swallowing of Dogs, Dysphagia, Vol. 1, pp.163-167, 1987). The article posits that the radiographic study of these marker beads during swallowing on many occasions over a substantial period of time provides a better understanding of the pharyngeal phase of deglutition on humans. In the described technique, the beads were deposited using a metallic needle cannula having an internal diameter slightly smaller than the beads to be implanted. When suction was applied to the cannula, the bead sat firmly on the tip. Once the ball-tipped cannula was inserted through tissue, the suction was broken, thereby releasing the bead, and the cannula is withdrawn.
Of course, this technique was not adapted or intended to mark specific tissue sites, but rather to mark an entire region or structure of the body in order to evaluate anatomical movements (i.e. swallowing motions). It also was not intended for use in humans.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and device for non-surgically implanting potentially permanent markers at the site of a lesion or other abnormal tissue, for the purpose of defining the margins of a lesion before it is removed and/or to establish its location after it has been removed. The markers should be easy to deploy and easily detected using state of the art imaging techniques.
A method of implanting markers directly into a patient's body using minimally invasive surgical techniques is described in International Patent No. WO 9608208A1 to Foerster et al. In this method, a clipping device is introduced to the lesion site by a tubular cannula. Once the clip is at the lesion site, an actuating means at the proximal end outside the patient deploys the clip into the tissue. This marking means can be used long term and can be imaged by most imaging techniques. However, because of it's small size, current ultrasound imaging systems are unable to detect is within the tissue.
Another method of implanting a marker is described in copending, commonly assigned application Ser. No. 08/802,958, filed Feb. 21, 1997, and entitled "Apparatus and Method for Marking Tissue". The marker described in this method utilizes a central tang that is tensily loaded to cause a squarely supported, end contact bridge on the marker to bend resulting in the goal post arms to swing inward in an arcuate fashion to pinch tissue. The tensile load on the tang is increased until it breaks at a predetermined location leaving the marker attached to the tissue site. Unfortunately, this method requires the marker to be pulled away from tissue when the marker is formed, consequently, limiting marker penetration and the amount of tissue grasped. Additionally, the marker is delivered to the biopsy site when the marker applier is correspondingly delivered through the biopsy cannula which is used for taking the biopsy sample. It is necessary to properly orient the opening on the applier with the biopsy port on the biopsy cannula in order to properly deploy the marker at the biopsy site. Unfortunately, the method described in this pending application does not describe a technique for readily accomplishing the proper orientational alignment between the applier opening and the biopsy port.
A surgical clip for permanently joining opposed tissue for an anastomosis procedure is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,664 to Kirsh et al. This is accomplished using an applier, also disclosed, to pull on a frangible central tang to close a pair of spaced arcuate arms extending generally parallel in one direction from opposite ends of the plastically deformable bridge. The arms are brought around opposed tissue. A predetermined force is applied to create a tensile break of the neck in the tang. Specific angles of clip shoulder and applier are given. The applier jaw faces are in the range of 120.degree. to 180.degree. with respect to one another, specifically 150.degree. Unfortunately, the method of forming this clip suffers a fate similar to the method described in the preceding paragraph.
More recently, an applier for implanting a biopsy marker into tissue has been described in commonly assigned, copending application Ser. No. 09/105,570, filed Jun. 26, 1998, and entitled "Applier for Implantable Surgical Marker." Advantageously, the opening at the distal end of the applier described in this application can be properly oriented into alignment with the biopsy port on the biopsy cannula in a simple and effective way, eliminating timely trial and error. However, a drawback of the applier specifically illustrated and others described in the art is that since the marker is ejected in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the applier, it is necessary to initially push the applier distally so that its distal end protrudes from the biopsy port prior to implanting the marker in the tissue. This added step is inconvenient.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method for delivering a biopsy marker to a site of a surgical biopsy, and implanting the marker at the site. Ideally, the method would eliminate the need to push the distal end of the applier out of the biopsy port before the marker is properly positioned for tissue implantation, consequently eliminating a step and saving time.